Flickr/Google/Bing Image Search API

programming flash
1

Hi everyone,

I’m currently using the Flickr Image Search API to load the first result of a string query as a background image for my site.
Here’s how it’s looking so far: http://www.tiagocabaco.com/other/im2_type_wip/

The thing with Flickr though is that if you want pictures at their original or large sizes every now and then you get an error message or image saying “Image Unavailable” due to Flickr permissions and user privacy restrictions. On the other hand medium sized or detail sized images tend to get very pixelated on large monitors. I’m pretty new at this Flickr API thing so I don’t know if there’s a way to filter the results to show only the first one that has actual original/large size available.

Question 1) Is there a way to filter/sort through Flickr API to load only the AVAILABLE/PERMITTED images at their original/largest size?

Here’s the code I have so far:


package
{
    import flash.display.*;
    import flash.system.LoaderContext;
    import flash.events.Event;
    import flash.net.URLLoader;
    import flash.net.URLRequest;
    import com.greensock.*;
    
    public class FlickrBgImg extends Sprite
    {
        private const API_KEY:String = "5ee6afe745f7f4b6f5af147ee515fbcb";
        private const API_SECRET:String = "83444680d729be3d";
                
        private var apiSearchTerm:String = "";
        private var apiUseAccount:String = null;
        private var apiMaxSearchResults:int = 1;
        
        private var apiResponse:XML;
        
        private var searchString:String;

        private var loader:URLLoader;
        
        private var picLoader:Loader;
        private var context:LoaderContext;
        private var currentPic:ScalingImage;        
        private var pic:Bitmap;
        private var loader_image:Bitmap;
        private var loader_bmd:BitmapData;
        
        public function FlickrBgImg( _string:String )
        {            
            workOnString( _string );
            
            searchString = "http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?method=flickr.photos.search&api_key=" + API_KEY + "&text=" + apiSearchTerm + "&per_page=" + apiMaxSearchResults;
        
            loader = new URLLoader(new URLRequest(searchString));
            loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, flickrResponse);
        }
        
        private function workOnString( _s:String ):void
        {
            var str:String = _s;
            apiSearchTerm = str;
            
            for ( var i=0; i < str.length; i++ )
            {
                if ( str.charAt(i) == " " )
                {
                    var newStr:String = str.split(" ").join("+");
                    apiSearchTerm = newStr;
                }
            }
        }
        
        private function flickrResponse(e:Event):void
        {
            loader.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, flickrResponse);
            loader = null;
            
            apiResponse = new XML(e.target.data);
            
            var imageMax:int = apiResponse.photos.photo.length();
            for (var imageCounter:int = 0; imageCounter < imageMax; imageCounter++)
            {
                var id:String = apiResponse.photos.photo[imageCounter].@id;
                var server:String = apiResponse.photos.photo[imageCounter].@server;
                var farm:String = apiResponse.photos.photo[imageCounter].@farm;
                var secret:String = apiResponse.photos.photo[imageCounter].@secret;
        
                var url:String = flickrURLGenerator(id, farm, server, secret);

                picLoader = new Loader();
                context = new LoaderContext();
                context.checkPolicyFile = true;
                picLoader.load(new URLRequest(url), context);
                picLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, picLoaded);
            }
        }
        
        private function picLoaded( e:Event ):void
        {
            loader_image = Bitmap( picLoader.content );
            loader_bmd = loader_image.bitmapData;
            
            pic = new Bitmap( loader_bmd );
            pic.smoothing = true;
            currentPic = new ScalingImage( pic );
            addChild( currentPic );
            
            TweenLite.from( currentPic, 2, { alpha:0 } );
        }

        private function flickrURLGenerator(_id:String, _farm:String, _server:String, _secret:String):String
        {
            var url:String = "http://farm" + _farm + ".static.flickr.com/" + _server + "/" + _id + "_" + _secret + "_d.jpg";
            return url;
        }
    }
}
  1. Alternatively I was thinking that Google and Bing don’t have permission/restriction issues(I think) so I was wondering if anyone knew how to set up a Google or Bing image search in Flash using AS3. The farthest I’ve got on this was finding this link: http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/documentation/#fonje But I can’t seem to get my head around how to actually build the whole search, query and load result.
    Anyone?

Thanks!